Redirect Checker

A redirect sends a visitor or a crawler from one URL to another. Servers do it with status codes. 301 and 308 mean the move is permanent. 302, 303 and 307 mean it is temporary. Google treats a 301 as a strong signal that the target should be processed and a 302 as a weak one.

The Redirect Checker requests your URL, reads the Location header, requests the next URL and repeats until it reaches a page that does not redirect, a loop, or a limit of 12 requests.

Run it after a site migration, an HTTPS switch, a URL cleanup or a bulk redirect import, to confirm that each old URL reaches the right page in one hop.

1. Enter your URLs: Paste one URL per line, up to 10. Include http:// or https:// to test a specific version. Without a scheme the tool tries https://.
2. Choose how to request them: The tool bot is the default. The Googlebot Smartphone option changes only the user agent string. It does not come from Google’s IP addresses, so a server that verifies Googlebot by IP treats it as a normal visitor.
3. Run the check: Press Check redirects. Each URL takes a few seconds, because the tool follows the chain one request at a time.
4. Read the hop table: Each row is one request: the status code, the URL, the response time and the type of change. A single 301 followed by a 200 is the clean result.
5. Fix what is flagged: Point the first URL straight to the final URL, switch temporary codes to 301 or 308 where the move is permanent, then run the check again.

The www and HTTP version of digitalmansoor.com, checked with the live tool.

Results shown came from the live tool when I wrote this page. It is a real finding on my own site: the www version takes two hops where one would do.

• Finds chains that add a request and delay at every hop.
• Confirms that a migration rule sends each old URL to the right page, and that the http, www and trailing-slash variants all end at one canonical URL.
• Catches temporary redirects where you meant a permanent move. Google keeps the original URL in results for temporary redirects.
• Shows the response time of each hop, which makes slow redirect rules visible.
• Detects loops before a customer or a crawler runs into them.

• Checks up to 10 URLs in one run and names the type of each hop, so you can tell which rule caused it.
• Flags 302 and 307 codes used for HTTP to HTTPS, www and trailing-slash changes.
• Lets you request as a Googlebot Smartphone user agent to test servers that treat bots differently, with the IP caveat stated up front.
• Refuses private and internal addresses and limits requests per visitor.
• Is free with no signup.

• Requests come from my server. A site that redirects by visitor country, IP range, language or cookies can send other visitors somewhere else.
• The Googlebot Smartphone option sets only the user agent. It does not use Google’s IP addresses.
• Meta refresh and JavaScript redirects are not followed. Google treats an instant meta refresh as a permanent redirect, so check those in the page source.
• The tool stops after 12 requests. Googlebot generally follows up to 10 hops.
• Only ports 80 and 443 are allowed, and some firewalls block my server. A block shows up as an error, not as a redirect result.
• The tool reads status codes and headers. It does not judge whether the destination is the right page.

The URLs you enter are sent to my server, which requests them and returns the result. The tool does not store them, but they appear in normal server logs like any web request. Requests are rate limited per visitor, and private or internal addresses are refused.